


Strength

by Davechicken



Series: Kylux - Fluff & Angst [18]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 18:11:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7768045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Davechicken/pseuds/Davechicken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tarot: Strength, courage, patience, control, compassion</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strength

Hux watches through the viewscreen as Kylo trains. He’s certain the Knight can tell he is there, through the one-way transparisteel window. Unlike Hux, he doesn’t need to rely on his eyes and his surveillance tools to understand the world around him.

He’d asked, once, what it felt like. How the Force… _was_. (Like he could explain it.) Kylo is not the most eloquent man Hux has ever met, most of the time. 

…but that’s because he chooses not to be. He keeps his tongue sharp and short like a dagger, striking with surgical precision that sometimes has Hux envious for his wit, and other times has him reeling from the hamstring cuts and wanting to smash his face into the bulkhead.

Few people get under his skin like Kylo Ren does.

The point being… though Ren chooses to live his life laconic and sardonic, there’s a mind behind the mask. It shows through in some of his brighter decisions, and in that wit. Humour like his doesn’t come from a mind that’s truly dull. 

Kylo had paused at the question, thinking it through. “What if you could see heat, like you do with thermal sensors?”

“You mean, in our eyes?”  


A nod.

“I see.”  


“And as well as heat, you could feel how the air was flowing. The directions, the currents. And you could hear someone’s hurting, and you could read their facial expression under the one they tried to put up.”  


“So… like now, but more?”  


“And it’s all connected. Like… you see a few pieces on the board. But then, suddenly, you see the pattern behind it: the plan of attack, the intent. You know what, and you know _why_ , and you know what **will be**.”  


Hux has to admit it sounds useful. He’ll never feel it, he knows that. He’s forever blinded, but so is most of the galaxy. It’s a source of frustration, but he’ll never change it. So he can either let it hurt him, or adapt and move on. Invest in thermo-sensing contacts. Check readouts of air-flow. Apply… pressure to people, to find out what they really mean.

It makes him a little slower than Kylo, but he’s still sprinting a race most think is long-distance. Maybe it is, but he’s not going to let his legs tire out, and they’ll be far behind him if they ever do.

The Force makes Kylo stronger, and Hux watches as he works through pre-determined katas. He’s watched enough to know there’s routine before the chaos, and even the chaos is predictable. Kylo will work through basic routines (Jedi? Snoke’s?) before he goes into free-form. Which kata he begins with varies, but once he steps into it, the results are almost finite.

Step, swirl, step, swirl. No opponent this time, though sometimes he spars with another Knight. Block, parry, counter-blow, sweep, jump. Grace in his long frame, flowing on and on like a dance. 

(He can dance, too. Hux was surprised to find that out, and then less so, when he remembered who Kylo had _been_.) 

Feet that never trip, hands that never falter. Some days the blows are harder, or the stretches further, but he never over-balances, and he never misses a step. Strange, considering how Kylo sometimes can be. 

Outside, he’s all **power** and _offensive_ , but in here there’s rules he obeys. He doubts Kylo could meditate to save his life, in the traditional sense. But this… this works for him. This balances him. He pivots and twirls and death is there in every flick and twitch. Motion stills him, and stillness motivates him. 

At the end of the kata, Kylo ramps up suddenly. From settled, joined-up thought comes question and answer. From a song learned and held close to the heart comes confusion and improvisation. Mind quiet enough, he cuts together bits and pieces into a new whole. Hux likes both, and he’s not sure which is more important.

The past repeated, or the future ahead: uncertain, yet to be fixed.

Kylo flows with both. 

But that is who he is, isn’t he? Or… who everyone is. A past, that cannot be changed. A future that always can. Hux admires his strength, and hopes it holds. 

Hopes his own does, too.


End file.
